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Reviews
Mamma Mia! (2008)
It is very good, excellent, saw the play twice, this compares and translates to the big screen nicely
The spoiler, I will say this first. When I saw the play, it had a sequence where between voulez vous and her waking up the next morning she had a nightmare. It is missing the nightmare. The nightmare was done to the song Under Attack. Had they put the song in it I think it would have contained the ONLY word considered as a swear word.
The movie was excellent. It really was. It is schmaltzy, sure, it is a little over sweet, yeah, but it is one of the few movies I have seen, in a long, LONG, time that I didn't feel the need to say Hail Marys or take a long hot shower after because the humor was filthy. The theater was packed. This being a week after it opened in USA that I saw it.
If you don't like ABBA music don't see it.
It is a family movie that you can easily take the whole family to and not have to worry much, aside from Christine's occasional naughty physical humor. That is about the only thing really dirty or adult about it.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
really great take on it
I liked Johnny better than George, much better voice and a bit more convincing in the part. I liked Angela better and didn't care for Patti at all. Ms Carter did her part well. Ed was very good. Did the kid sing his own part? Were any voices filled over? I want to know how anyone can complain about the singing in this movie. I have read that the take on the move is darker, less humor, than the original 1982 DVD (that I have) The only difference I saw between the original and the movie was two fewer deaths and the over all theme "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd..." was cut, other than that the movie does qualify as operetta, that of 40% to 70% lyric of the movie sung, the program dependent on the words in the sung portions. It was a very dark comedy. It had the complete overall text and innuendos the play had, it just didn't have the audience laughing or the applause pauses and bows.
Very well done, I hope that Mr. Depp sings again in other movies. I also liked Mr Bower's, Miss Wisener's, Mr Sanders', Mr Spall's and Mr Rickman's singing, maybe Alan will sing in one of the Harry Potter movies before they end.
Open All Night (1981)
This show was great
I remember watching it watching it from the start, I was not a Dukes fan and I didn't exactly care for what was on NBC at the time, either, and in 81 the PBS stations were usually world news programs running opposite it. I watched the first episode and thought, "What a fricken cool theme song!" it was very much like boogie woogie bugle boy, I wish I could download a copy of it off iTunes. It is sad that it was short run. I enjoyed it with my dad, in turn we later watched Open All Hours, and laughed our arses off at the Nurse Gladys Emanual innuendos and other running gags in it, also. That, too, was a good program. I am half hoping that the whole has not been destroyed as some failed programs are. I would like, very much, to own the series on DVD. A friend of mine likes to watch Married With Children, Keeping Up, Are You Being Served, Sanford and Son, I know he would like BOTH coasts' versions of this TV show. The odd part is, with it being on for 4 months in America they almost made more episodes than the original BBC which ran, off and on for 5 years, and they had made only 30 episodes. English broadcast was odd. I think they have adopted the American shooting schedule of one episode for each week, for up to and including 28 to 32 weeks, depending on writing, contracts, ideas with scripts, tempers of the divas, etc....
One Day at a Time: Happy New Year (1976)
This episode is about giving.
Ann, Barbara and Julie, Dwayne and Ginny give a talent show on new years night at a retirement home. It really shows talent. Barbara and Julie dress and Elton and Kiki and perform "Don't Go Braking My Heart" Ginny sings "Mr. Wonderful" and dances with Dwayne. It was a really good show. I don't know if this actually has spoilers, but it is the plot of this episode. One Day at a Time was a really well written program for it's time. At the time it was really right on with current events and actual good decisions made by a mother in how they should be handled. I purchased the first season on DVD, yesterday, just for kicks. I forgot how well the program was made, I wish some of the current programs were made as well. I am (im)patiently waiting for season two to be released...I really like Mary and her handling of Ginny.
The Thorns (1988)
The show was too ahead of any time.
The person who posted a comment hit the nail on the head. The Thorns was the best. It had a lot of potential. I believe that it wasn't that it was too ahead of it's time but that the upper crust did not like that other, "lower class", less influential people (those that make less that $125,000 a quarter) should see that their lives are as shallow as depicted, full of cracks or that they aren't as grand as they want others to seem. I have met those sort of people. If they drop something important and you pick it up for them and hand it to them and say, "here, you dropped this," they either look at you like they can't understand English, that anything you say is so beneath them or they call security for disturbing them. But on the flip side I have met some that were so cool, nice, etc. This show featured a very shallow side of the rich life, which exists.
This show was WAY ahead of it's time.
The Chinese restaurant next door was so like the on going joke in Keeping Up Appearances, an English show that aired two years after this program.
Kate & Allie: Stage Mother (1986)
Allie steals the show, and gets an Emma
Allie goes to the local college to help and observe how a television station operates, I think for a class assignment. Andrea Martin is there, she brings up a couple of her characters from SCTV. There was a really bad storm that approaches blizzards strength and Allie ends up there the whole day doing various skits with Andrea. It was nice seeing Jane doing SNL type stuff again.
If I am not badly mistaken this was one of the two episodes that almost lead to spin offs of Kate and Allie. The other episode involved Lindsay Wagner who was a drama teacher. Both had great premises and would have actually lead to great shows.
But then I am an addict when it came to Kate and Allie. For me it was like The Odd Couple and after the Golden Girls came on I can now see where they may have fed off each other.
Kate & Allie: Thanksgiving (1985)
This episode is excellent
This episode is a really grand one that shows Jane's acting ability. She is excellent in everything she does, but this episode was exceptional. It starts out, if I remember, Charles and Clair ending up coming to the thanks giving. Somehow everyone is called away except Clair and leaves Allie to settle some problems in attitude differences. It also touches upon how Clair and Charles' relationship started. It is a very well acted, directed and written episode.
When the children comment about going to see the parade that year they were actually part of the parade in real life.
I also think this is the episode where Allie sends Kate to get a turkey and could not find one anywhere. Kate and Allie end up going to a Red Cross/Salvation Army turkey dinner and begging a father for help; they end up making the "frankenturkey" 1 wing and three drumsticks.
Did anyone eat any of the anchovy pork balls? I know Claire did. She takes a bight and says, "This is terrible..." Allie responds, "What's terrible, the pork-balls or the truth?" I don't think they ever really resolved the issue of the breakup of Allie and Charles, but they did learn to respect each other.
Petticoat Junction (1963)
it's a matter of taste
I liked Petticoat better than the other two shows that came from the same people. I was told as a child I liked Green Acres. After having seen it as an adult, more like having been forced to sit through it, I can safely say I definitely like Petticoat Junction better of the three. What's to say about it. It was a TV show about a widow, Kate, who was going through the empty nest syndrome, unfortunately, she never really got to the empty part. Not that she didn't push.
Because of the show I wanted to learn how to fly a plane as a child. Thinking of my driving record I think the world can heave a huge sigh of relief that I never did.
I also like to watch Beverly Hillbillies sometimes, but not often.